To request a refund

From the Contract Room, choose the (…) options menu under the freelancer’s name

Select “Request a Refund”

If you have hired an agency and would like a refund, please contact customer support.

Note on closing contracts: If you close the contract while waiting for a refund, you'll still only have the usual 14 days to leave feedback. If you wait longer than that (for example, if it's taking longer to negotiate the refund) you'll lose your ability to leave public feedback on the contract. The freelancer can enable feedback changes if you leave feedback and want to change it later.

Based on your request, your freelancer can then choose to issue a full refund, a partial refund, or no refund at all. Even without a formal request, they can proactively initiate a refund through Upwork on any contract, active or ended, as long as:

The refund is within 180 days of the payment

The refund amount is not more than what they earned on the contract

They have funds available to cover the refund

Fixed-price note: If you need to request a refund of an escrow overpayment on a fixed-price contract (funds in escrow, but not yet released to the freelancer), that’s a different process. Click here to learn more.

If the freelancer approves your refund request

The refund is automatically credited back to your billing method immediately.

It may take 3-5 business days for the credit to be available to you on that billing method’s account.

If a refund reduces the freelancer’s earnings to $1 or less on the contract, the contract will no longer show on both your work histories and any feedback will be removed from your feedback ratings. It can take up to 12 hours for this information to update.

Note: If your original payments came from multiple billing methods, we’ll automatically apply a single credit to your Upwork account that can be used to cover future invoices. Alternatively, you can contact our customer support to request that we issue split credits to all the original billing methods that you used rather than to your Upwork account balance. Funds billed to one method cannot be refunded to another.

If the freelancer refuses your refund request or does not reply

Hourly Contracts

If the freelancer declines to give a refund or you don’t hear back at all, you may still be able to dispute the charges. Timing is important here, however. You must file any dispute by Friday after a billing week closes. For example, you receive the week’s invoice on Monday at noon UTC. You have from then until Friday at midnight UTC to review those hours and file a dispute, if needed. Click here to learn more about filing an hourly dispute.

This means you can only dispute the current invoice, not past invoices. If you miss this window, you and your freelancer should work together to resolve any issues and possibly discuss your refund request. If you are unable to reach an agreement please reach out to Support. Mediation assistance is available within 30 days of the last payment on your contract.

Fixed-Price Contracts

Fixed-price contracts are paid as work is submitted and approved If you need to close a job with funds remaining in escrow, you may file an escrow dispute for their return. Dispute assistance is available if the last payment on a Fixed Price contract was within the previous 30 days or as long as funds are held in escrow. Please contact support to request assistance if you and your freelancer cannot reach an agreement and the contract falls within this criteria.